Dark Wings: A King In Training
A diplomat...arrested for diplomacy.
The absurdity of the proposition swirled round and round in Jace's head, and still, he could make no sense of it. Nothing in any of his lessons nor prior life experience had prepared him for the whirlwind he had ridden off into that fateful day his mother sent him north. The Starks and Manderlys and the rest of the Northern host he had won over, an early success tainted by the bitter taste of Lord Rickard's high asking price.
The man's father had sworn an oath! But none of these wretched petty lordlings cared a jot for oaths, it seemed. Lord Rickard had been bought with Jace's own betrothed, the Princess Baela, now intended to the man's brother and heir. He remained how his grandfather had often spoken with big words and praising speeches of the Northmen, their honour, their loyalty...bah! If he could see them now. It was all a far cry from the pageants of chivalry and pomp at the court, and the chronicles his Maesters had read to him, of great knights sacrificing their own lives in favour of their beloved (and who was more beloved than the Realm's Delight?), great Lords risking all for good Kings and Queens.
Whatever feelings of warmth still lingered after he had struck his bargain with the Stark of Winterfell dissipated at the Twins, where Lord Frey received him with startling abruptness and distance only to reveal he had already proclaimed for the Queen Rhaenyra.
He had proceeded to Riverrun, a courtesy visit on his way south, lest the other River lords feel hard done by when the Prince did not deign to dine with them. The whimsy and manipulation of the Lord Regent, one Ser Mance Vance, had seen Jace thrust into a military command he did not desire or ask for: the supreme command of the Riverlander forces of House Tully of Riverrun. He had accepted it as a grace to the River lords, a sign of his mother's trust and favour, content that his diplomatic mission could continue by way of the rookery, to which Vance gave him access. They were soon joined by his cousin Lucian the Younger, coming from the Vale with reinforcements of some 20,000 men, but no sooner had the men sat in Council than Vance suffered a mental break more violent and inexplicable than any Jace had ever seen before.
As Jace laid out the fruits of his diplomatic labour - something of an understanding with the lions of Casterly Rock, and a tentative betrothal with a Reyne of Castamere - and revealed to the Council precious information of Lord Lannister's military numbers and movements, the Lord Regent spewed words of ever increasing fury.
Boy!
The word still rang loud and clear in Jace's ears, bringing a crimson tinge to them and a slight tremor to his lips.
Jace had excused himself from the Council and made for the practice yard, but Vance was not finished. The Prince was seized, disarmed and thrown in the dungeons of Riverrun. Had he had more time to think he would have fought back, but one look at the resigned and motionless figure of his own kinsman, Lucian Arryn, had made him dither long enough for the trout guards to overpower their future sovereign and drag him away.
It was treason, criminal, blasphemous...a break of House Tully's feudal contract with his mother their sovereign, and Vance's own contract before gods and men towards a man who was both his guest and sworn commander. But the man cared not for any of those matters, and evidently neither did his sheep-loving kinsman from the Eyrie. Accordingly Jace had responded with kind words and good grace when he was at length set free, doing his best to depart Riverrun with haste.
Thank god he did not ask for an apology.
Such a man was a wild beast, untameable and untrustworthy to the last, and Jace was loathe to take the path the man had indicated for him. Vance said the Queen demanded Jace in the capital. Did she really? For all he knew she could be dead, and Vance directing him straight into Vhagar's bite. Last Jace had heard from his mother he was to rally support in the Reach while she and Daemon and Luke and all the others made for the capital. Was it plausible she'd now be demanding his presence outside King's Landing's walls too? Vermax was a fine beast, that much everyone knew, but he was unlikely to be of great assistance for the siege...no, his mother would not burn their future home, and Vance's loyalty was questionable, to say the least.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by Shankbot de Bodemloze
)
